Monday, October 14, 2019

Saudi Oil Attacks Send OPEC+ Compliance Soaring Past 200%

OPEC and its non-OPEC allies in the production cut deal achieved a
compliance rate of more than 200 percent with their cuts in September,
mainly due to last month’s attacks on vital oil infrastructure in OPEC’s
largest producer Saudi Arabia, sources with knowledge of the matter
told Reuters on Monday.

Due
to this attack, OPEC’s total production slumped by 1.318 million bpd
from August to 28.491 million bpd in September, according to the
secondary sources in OPEC’s closely-watched Monthly Oil Market Report.

This
figure, reported by OPEC last week - is very close to the Platts survey
from earlier last week which found that OPEC pumped 28.45 million bpd
of crude oil last month, down by 1.48 million bpd from August - the steepest monthly drop in nearly 17 years.

According
to OPEC’s secondary sources, production in Saudi Arabia plunged by 1.28
million bpd to 8.564 million bpd in September. The Saudis, however,
self-reported to OPEC that production was down by just 660,000 bpd in
September from August, at 9.129 million bpd.

Crude
oil production in Iran further declined, by 34,000 bpd to 2.159 million
bpd, amid the U.S. sanctions restricting Iranian oil exports.
Venezuela’s crude oil production plunged again, by 82,000 bpd to average
just 644,000 bpd in September, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.

The
largest non-OPEC producer part of the pact, Russia, saw its oil
production inch down in September, to 11.25 million bpd from 11.29
million bpd in August, but still above Moscow’s cap under the deal.
Russia has vowed that it is still looking to comply with its share of
the cuts.